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February 09, 2005

Letting go

At the feast of the Presentation of Christ in the Temple our preacher was the Venerable Peter (aka Father Prior!), and he used the set Gospel (Book of Common Prayer) to point out the fact that two of the characters, Joseph and Mary, were adhering to and honouring the traditional Jewish custom, while two more, the elderly Simeon and the even older Anna, were welcoming the change that Christ was bringing.

Thus we have the conundrum of the young wanting to hold fast to the tradition and the old seeking to cast it aside. An image that rather turns conventional perceptions on their head!

Watching the Fiddler on the Roof, we have Tevje applauding adherence to "Tradition" - but at the same time acknowledging that it sometimes brings pain. This is the dilemma nearly all of us face, we want to embrace change, but are afraid of it, we want to stay where we are, but are afraid of being left behind. In the story of Simeon and his recognition of the Christ child in the Temple, we have an example of a man who had been waiting for the promised Jewish Messiah all his life. The Messiah that was supposed to bring about the restoiration of the Davidian Kingdom and the glory of the Solomon period, yet, here, at last confrointed by the reality, this frail old man recognises that the Messiah is come to many more than the Jewish nation, he has come to the world.

As St Luke tells us in Chapter 2 verse 29 - 32 in the canticle we know as the Nunc Dimittis, Simeon proclaims:

Lord, now dismiss your servant in peace, as you have promised.
For my eyes have seen your salvation,
Which you have prepared in the sight of all people,
A light for revelation to the Gentiles
and the glory of your people Israel.

To this he then added an explanation to Mary and Joseph, saying that this child would bring both joy and distress to the world and all who encounter Him.

Now that may seem a strange thing for the promised one to do, but consider, whenever there is a change required, whenever we are forced to think through our "safe" positions and the need to change, we find ourselves distressed by it. Some will, of course, embrace a change willingly, others will fight against it. This is exactly what happened with Christ's ministry: some embraced it, some did not and some even switched sides in both directions.

As Tevje discovers after having allowed one daughter to break with "tradition", he is faced with another who wishes to flout an even bigger one. The first case he can live with, the second he cannot and it causes both sides enormous pain. There is always that option, but it also carries with it the risk that the person who refuses to embrace the change will find themselves eventually the isolated and ostracised one - and they will have done it to themselves.

Tradition demanded that all first born boys had to be brought to the Temple and offered to God, being "redeemed" by the sacrifice of an animal (usually a lamb). This goes back to the sojourn in the desert and the Law set out in Leviticus. Mary and Joseph took Christ to the Temple in accordance with that "tradition" even though, by this time, many didn't bother. They sought to abide by tradition and maintain the familiar pattern. Simeon and Anna, on the other hand, recognise in this infant the Messiah and that He will change the world radically. Contrary to expectation, they embrace it!

Perhaps, in this, there is a lesson for us all. If we resist change, one of two things can occur; either it will happen anyway and we will be swept aside in the tide of change, or we will succeed in preventing it - and eventually have to accept responsibility for the fact that something we value and hoped to preserve has become increasingly irrelevant to anyone else until eventually we are either forced to change or accept that it dies with us. On the other hand, if we embrace the change and then seek to work to ensure that it is properly done and that the best of the old is kept alongside the best of the new, we can at least be sure that the best of what we valued is preserved and the whole can now move forward keeping all onboard.

Listening to the sermon the other day I was struck by how easily we fall into certain set patterns in everything - and how difficult it is to change them. Sadly, all to often we do not change when we have the right opportunity and then face having to do it later when it is even more difficult to accept. Perhaps, like Simeon and Anna, we need to be more receptive to God and less fearful of our own likes, dislikes and prejudice.

Letting go of our "safe" concepts, styles of worship, "traditions", and comfort zones is the hardest thing we can ever do, but sometimes we have to take it on faith and trust that the Lord will guide us into the future safely. No one ever said it would be easy being a Christian, as being Christian demands that we grow and change spiritually. Failure to do so locks us into a meaningless and negative spiral which leads nowhere.

Posted by The Gray Monk at February 9, 2005 10:22 AM